When I saw the email announcing the Scott Kelby photography workshop I was excited to attend. Shannon and I were in Sydney earlier this year at the end of a New Zealand to Australia cruise. We fell in love with Sydney and looked forward to seeing it again. Sydney has a great vibe and reminds me of growing up in Southern California. Weather, interesting sites, food, things to do, the beach; Sydney seemingly has it all
I planned my travel to arrive a day ahead of the opening dinner which gave me just about two full days to explore on my own and get ready for several days of intense photography sessions. Our hotel was conveniently located across the street from the Sydney central train station. Catching the train from the airport was easy…and like all Sydney public transportation - cheap!! Arriving on a Sunday morning I remembered the street market at the Rocks. A great spot for food, shopping, and views of the iconic Sydney Opera House and Bay Harbour Bridge. I decided to find the stairs to climb up to the pedestrian walkway of the bridge and find a spot to shoot the Sydney skyline. Although it was bright mid-day light it was a spectacular view nonetheless. I stopped for lunch at the oldest pub in Sydney dating back to the 1800s. Fish and Chips were on my mind and the "Fortune of War" pub delivered!
On Monday morning before exploring the city again I caught the Chiefs football game on my iPad. Not a good game as a Chiefs fan but afterward I headed back to the Queen Victoria building and the waterfront. After attending previous workshops with Scott Kelby I knew I was in for long days of shooting and editing photos mixed with camaraderie with the other photographers. I knew most of the photographers from earlier workshops and we have become friends outside of our shared photography sessions.
We began very early on the first day arriving to our first location in the dark - first stop - to see sunrise of the Sydney skyline from the Bay Harbour bridge. We set up near the south pylon along the railing of the bridge. This provided a great location to start our workshop as the sun rose behind the famous Sydney Opera House in front and below us. The early morning sun set us up with a palette of blues and yellows for our images.
Our next stop was at another leg of the harbour to our west. Here we focused our attention on beautiful architecture of the Barangaroo district. The focal point was the Crown Building with its twisting shape and gleaming blue reflections. We all captured killer architecture shots and after a time we returned to our hotel for our first breakfast and classroom session.
The co-instructor with Scott Kelby for this workshop was Mimo Meidany. I had watched the results from other workshops that Mimo co-led and looked for to gaining knowledge from him to improve my photography skills in two specific areas - long exposures and black and white photography. One of the assignments during my 2025 Kelby Inner Circle membership was to capture street photography. Living in Nashville there are many great opportunities for street photography and I became hooked on the genre which led to a desire of improving my black and white images.
Our sunset shoot began along the waterfront at Milsons Point underneath the bay harbor bridge next to the small amusement park - Luna Park. As the sun receded behind the bridge we worked our way along the promenade alternating shots between the bridge and the Sydney skyline across from us. This was the spot where the instruction from Mimo on how to shoot long exposures to make the water silky smooth all came together. Everything clicked in my head and I finally felt like I could shoot long exposures wherever I wanted without complicated exposure calculations.
The next morning our sunrise shoot began with a trip to Bronte Beach and Watsons Bay. We first set up at the Bronte Baths where locals arrived for a morning swim in the seaside pool. We moved on to a cliff-side location as the sun rose above the horizon and also captured images of the Sydney skyline across Watsons Bay.
We had a great opportunity during the workshop to visit two examples of art. First came a very old classic movie house - The State Theater. Full of reds and golds, it gave us a glimpse into what it was like to attend a movie in the "early days". On another day we stopped by an eclectic art display in an alleyway in the middle of the central business district - Angels Place. The art display is called "Forgotten Songs" and is full of 120 birdcages suspended from above and accompanied by the birdcalls of extinct or threatened birds. Sometimes the best art can only be viewed by looking up!
We spent a sunny late afternoon on our street photography and specifically black and white focus at the plaza surrounding the Opera House. I learned a lot of techniques to help black and white street photography composition and fine art styles. This was another aha moment for the me in the workshop. Being able to set up my camera to see and think black and white was a big step forward.
For our last sunset shoot we had our model shoot at locations framing her against the backdrop of the Sydney Opera House and underneath the Bay Harbour Bridge. We dodged rain during the shoot and the model did a great job working with all of us. It was interesting to see everyone’s model photos as we captured her very differently from the same spots. Our final location at Mrs. Macquaries Point gave us both a great location to finish our model shoot and to capture the iconic view of the Opera House with the Bay Harbour bridge. A quintessential view of Sydney. I was able to vary my long exposure shots using both my Canon and Leica cameras. As we were heading back through the park to meet our bus we were greeted with a beautiful skyline view rising up behind the Royal Botanic Garden full of purples, yellows, and greens. Great way to end our day!
The weather turned rainy on our last morning preventing a sunrise shoot for the group. A few of us took advantage of the time and walked over to the Central Station to observe and shoot. It was another good training session for street and proved valuable later that day after our wrap up lunch when we visited other train stations for interesting shots.
We packed a lot into a few days for our Sydney workshop. I was very happy to meet my personal goals on the trip - to gain at least one portfolio-worthy travel image , to improve my long exposure and black and white photography skills. Thank you very much to Scott Kelby and Mimo Meidany. There counsel was priceless and they created such a fun environment for the workshop. And to my fellow photographers on the trip - I can’t wait to shoot with all of you again!
Credits:
JJL Photography 2025